Best Travel Camera? | The Nomad Way on Cameras

What Is The Best Travel Camera?

What is one of the most important items whilst travelling? A camera. Which camera should you buy? Well...there a number of basic features we think are essential:

• Image quality: As well as decent size sensor. Naturally you want great photos.

• Manual control: Auto is great, but sometimes you need to adjust settings to suit.

• Focal Range / Significant Zoom: At least 28mm to 140mm equivalent. Capture that animal up close, building from a lookout or (discreetly sneak) the local guy in Cuba smoking a pipe. Wide angle options are also great to get the whole scene in.

• Portability: that is not having to carry a large heavy camera with extra lenses.

• Flip Out Screen: To get that awkward angle, to peer over a crowd of people and to frame yourself in a portrait making sure that background is in.

• Sound Clip: Record a sound clip to attach with photo. Remember what the building was, who the person with you was, or maybe the sounds of the city street, or a live band. Sounds can bring a photo to life.

• Quality Video Recording: 4k with zoom and continuous autofocus whilst recording.

• One Hand Operation / Ergonomics: maybe you're riding a bike, you're eating a burger or carrying a bag in one hand. Whipping a camera out and taking a shot should be easy. Phones allow for this, however they're not easy to handle with one hand and miss out on tactile buttons. 

• Wi-Fi and GPS Location: Relatively new, this is huge, allowing you to map your trip and back up photos.

• Built-in Flash: No high-end cameras feature this. And sure, you won't use it much, however it's handy to light up a room that's dark, or grab a snap of a sign that's in complete darkness.

• Waterproof/Shockproof: This should be standard, yet is only available in a select number of entry level cameras. You're travelling, this makes sense!

These are all basic functions that exist today and have existed in cameras for years. However, would you believe there is not one camera on the market today which has all of these functions? Even if you take away, Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS recording and the waterproof/shockproof ability, even though these should be standard!

Mirrorless / SLR?

Well, 1kg upwards for a full frame setup, the necessity to carry additional lenses, the inability to take spontaneous shots due to the camera's lack of portability or maybe the incorrect lens is on. One hand operation? No chance. Try taking an SLR with you whilst downhill mountain biking. Plus, the unwanted attention it attracts.

APS-C or Micro Four Thirds?

Sure, they are much more compact than a full frame mirrorless or SLR cameras, big sensor, great quality...but they lack portability. The interchangeable lenses are still big, especially to get a significant zoom range. Plus, as per full-frame cameras, they are difficult to use with one hand and good luck finding one that has a flip out screen along with voice recording.

The camera we travel with now does fall into this category - it's a Fujifilm X-S10 (the current model is an X-S20). An almost reluctant purchase due to the size and inconvenience of interchangeable lenses, however it ticks a lot of boxes when comparing it to the other options on the market. From our wish list - the two things that are missing are size and lack of weather sealing. Other than that, it produces great shots.

Compact / Bridge Camera?

They were getting much better, some had great optical zoom, however they still have smaller sensors, or lack a key feature such as a flip our screen or full manual control. Some of the larger bridge cameras such as Sony's RX10 line, found a good compromise. But they were large and no longer exist.

Long Zoom Compact?

They tick some of the boxes but because they're cramming so much zoom in, it is sacrificed by a smaller image sensor and therefore, poorer image quality. 

A `Prosumer` Compact? 

Full manual control, larger sensor than a long zoom or compact, they are portable, record quality video, some have flip out screens and a decent zoom range. The category seems right, but some basic features are missing. For example, Voice Capture once existed on the majority of camera brands but in recent years, the function has been dropped! Canon, Sony, Panasonic? No or not anymore. Nikon, Fujifilm? Luckily, yes.

Flip out screens...one of the handiest features of a camera is also ignored by many manufacturers. The famous Canon G series, namely the G12 complete with a flip out screen was replaced by the G15 and then G16 without a flip out screen! Yet this feature is being used in their long zoom camera and SLR's. This line now no longer exists.

Panasonic and Fujifilm served up their contenders, with fantastic image quality but decided to go with small zoom ranges (albeit better low light performance) and no flip out screens. Sony's RX100 was acclaimed by experts as perhaps the best compact ever made. It is very impressive, 1 inch sensor and amazing capabilities. Yet, it is limited to a 3.8x zoom, no flip out screen, no voice memo recording. This can't be an ideal option for travellers! Subsequent models addressed some of these issues, but the line now no longer exists.

So, What Travel Camera Should You Get?

In 2012 versus 2025

In 2012, this left in our opinion, the Nikon P7700 as the best travel camera available. Sure, it doesn't match the quality of an SLR, or even the Sony RX100, but the quality was great. Plus, it made a trustworthy travel companion, allowing us to capture the shots we wanted in the first place and record more of our travel experiences. Always remember, no matter how good the camera is, it's having the camera on hand to take the actual shot that matters. One year later, Nikon launched an updated version, the Nikon P7800. Very similar to the P7700, the P7800 added an electronic viewfinder to the camera. A welcome addition for various conditions such as attempting to track fast moving subjects such as birds. The Nikon P7800 had:

• 1/1.7 inch sensor: not as large as others but larger than long zoom compacts.

• Full manual control.

• 7.1x or 200mm equivalent, larger than any other in its category.

• Portable, sure not a small camera, but small enough.

• Flip out screen, to easily frame and capture all those awkward angled shots.

• Voice memo function to attach to a photo.

• Quality video recording in Full HD with zoom and focus function.

• One hand operation, well almost. They've fitted a lens cap to the new model which means if it's on, 2 hands are required.

• GPS recording, although only via a separately sold adaptor.

It wasn't perfect but in The Nomad Way's humble opinion, was the best camera available for a traveller. These cameras are actually no increasing in value and are worth double the retail price from when they were new.

Sadly, this product line is also discontinued. It would have been great if they added a larger sensor, scrapped the lens cap and took into account the importance of Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS and waterproof/shockproof abilities. For a little more bulk and expense, it would be well worth it.

And What About Today?

The 'prosumer' compact line across all manufacturers is very limited, however as they are becoming more popular as second hand options, manufacturers may start to bring them back. Otherwise, today we feel one of the best options is the Fujifilm X-S10 / X-S20. As we mentioned above, interchangeable lenses are big and cumbersome, however they do produce great quality photos. Aside from that, the X-S10 ticks pretty much every box. We use it with the following lenses:

• Viltrox 15mm F1.7 - for wide angle shots and low light scenarios (a great little compact lens)

• Fujifilm 33mm F1.4 - for portraits

• Tamron 18-300mm F3.5-6.3 - for everything else. The massive zoom range is so useful.

The X-S20 has:

• APS-C (23.5 x 15.6 mm) sensor: not as large as full frame, but still great results and smaller lenses.

• Full manual control.

• Portable, sure not a small camera, but small enough.

• Flipout screen, to easily frame and capture all those awkward angled shots.

• Voice memo function to attach to a photo.

• Quality video recording in 4K.

• One hand operation, if you leave off the lens cap and use a small lens.

• GPS recording, when you sync it with the Fujifilm app on your phone.

• Built-in flash.

The camera is great however the message we had for camera manufacturers in 2012 is still the same today... So camera manufacturers, who's going to step up to the plate? Electronic giants, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung entered the camera market and have basically given us more of the same. Who's going to come in Apple'esque style and give us what we want? Just a sneaking suspicion, surely the travel market is by far your largest!